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Southlake, TX
Imparting game development wisdom of dubious quality a ridiculously long time.
June 20, 2006
Okay folks. The the 6/20 beta of the games is now available in the same place where you found the previous beta. If you don't have that old email or you want to join up with the beta program, email john@thecodezone.com and I'll set you up. My beta-list is still pretty small, but I don't anticipate …
June 20, 2006
I'm having another beta drop today. This should be much more polished than the previous one. There's nothing like letting other people try your games to ferret out important bugs. I still have space available, so if you wanna test, email john@thecodezone.com.
Oh, if you ever find yourself in Japan a…
Oh, if you ever find yourself in Japan a…
June 14, 2006
1. Move directories around (thus messing up your include paths) before packaging up your first beta.
2. Release a beta one without any way for testers to post bugs short of emailing you.
Both are fixed now. If you're a tester, check out http://www.thecodezone.com/bugs.html to post 'em. I found the be…
2. Release a beta one without any way for testers to post bugs short of emailing you.
Both are fixed now. If you're a tester, check out http://www.thecodezone.com/bugs.html to post 'em. I found the be…
June 12, 2006
If you're using NSIS as your installer, here's an option that can potentially save you a ton of space, especially if you have redundant data.
The "SetCompressor" option in your script has a few new options in it. The old options of what compression type to use (gzip vs lzma vs BZIP2) is still there,…
The "SetCompressor" option in your script has a few new options in it. The old options of what compression type to use (gzip vs lzma vs BZIP2) is still there,…
June 12, 2006
Installed the Vista Beta on one of the machines here in the Hobbit Hole. For the most part it works pretty well. There are plenty of rough edges, but it's reasonably stable and easy to work with.
Except for one thing.
Windows Freakin' Explorer.
Microsoft's always had a love-hate relationship with Wind…
Except for one thing.
Windows Freakin' Explorer.
Microsoft's always had a love-hate relationship with Wind…
June 09, 2006
I don't have the install program written, but everything else is ready.
Hence, I'm officially beta 1 today for the standalone versions of The Code Zone Daily Puzzles.
If you're interested in being a tester for 'em, email me at john@thecodezone.com. I'd prefer that you be a player of the daily games. …
Hence, I'm officially beta 1 today for the standalone versions of The Code Zone Daily Puzzles.
If you're interested in being a tester for 'em, email me at john@thecodezone.com. I'd prefer that you be a player of the daily games. …
June 07, 2006
Here's a treat for those of you who (like TANSTAAFL and DavidRM have told me on separate occasions) like to find small things that make their lives slightly more optimum, much like Mr. Gilbreth of Cheaper By The Dozen.
And I'm referring to the book. Not to that crappy Steve Martin movie that took no…
June 06, 2006
Is ConFusebox too easy? I made the size random so that the game would vary slightly in difficulty from day to day, but I think the smallest size (7, today) is just too easy.
It currently picks a random size between 7 and 9. Any objections to me ramping it up one or two clicks?
My only worry is that i…
It currently picks a random size between 7 and 9. Any objections to me ramping it up one or two clicks?
My only worry is that i…
June 05, 2006
Everything appears to be working again after a couple of days of score-related turmoil. I recompiled stuff for Flash 7 player instead of Flash 6. That drops my potential playable browser-share from 99% to 98%, but I think I can bear that. That did bring up a couple of bugs, mainly related to Action…
June 01, 2006
Awright, I have something for testing. Take a look at this:
http://www.thecodezone.com/games/tables/hitable_chesscards_rss.xml
This is a generated high score table in XML, complete with XSLT styling so it'll look reasonable if somebody browses to it. I tested it in all the modern browsers (Firefox, I…
http://www.thecodezone.com/games/tables/hitable_chesscards_rss.xml
This is a generated high score table in XML, complete with XSLT styling so it'll look reasonable if somebody browses to it. I tested it in all the modern browsers (Firefox, I…
June 01, 2006
A good discussion if you live in the D/FW area or are a member of a game development club of some type. I'm trying to come up with the "spark" that'll get D/FW gamedev gatherings off the ground.
Right now we're having the opposite problems that most clubs have. Most clubs have the content but not th…
Right now we're having the opposite problems that most clubs have. Most clubs have the content but not th…
May 31, 2006
Added a few more bits here and there to make the games a little more consistent. They all have the same button-push sounds now. Most of 'em have their own little "victory theme" that plays when your game is over.
A couple of days ago, Penn Jillette posted an enhanced version of his "Monkey Tuesday" …
A couple of days ago, Penn Jillette posted an enhanced version of his "Monkey Tuesday" …
May 30, 2006
Apart from a couple of minor suggestions and bug reports, the new games appear to be running pretty well. Apart from a few minor hiccups (Shi sen high scores being ranked in reverse), everything's working pretty well.
I still need to come up with some better instructions for BaffleBees. I think I ha…
I still need to come up with some better instructions for BaffleBees. I think I ha…
May 26, 2006
Well, I'm still a couple of weeks from having all of the standalone games ready, but Shelly said that the six existing games are good enough to go live. Hence, I put 'em all up and released 'em into the wild.
I guess they're still officially in beta until the standalone ones are ready, but they're p…
I guess they're still officially in beta until the standalone ones are ready, but they're p…
May 24, 2006
OpenLaszlo is officially very cool. For the uninitiated, it's an object-oriented XML-based language that's used to build robust web-based UI's, ala Ajax or Flex.
Like Flex, you describe your app's front-end in an XML-based language that describes the layout, controls, and behaviors. Also like Flex y…
Like Flex, you describe your app's front-end in an XML-based language that describes the layout, controls, and behaviors. Also like Flex y…
May 23, 2006
A light bulb popped up over the head today. A few days ago I wrote a little panel that allows you to keep track of what games you've played today. Then it occurred to me that I ought to just replace my animated buttons with it.
It takes up less space than the old one and it's not as distracting with…
It takes up less space than the old one and it's not as distracting with…
May 22, 2006
A few days ago, I asked what would happen if VOIP makers just added a plug-in model that would allow people to attach their own codec plugin, thus freeing the VOIP makers from the potential of the government forcing them to open up "back doors" to their systems.
Well, it appears that the answer is t…
Well, it appears that the answer is t…
May 19, 2006
It's firm license renewal time for Professional Engineers. And that means that every little one-man print shop out there is gonna start pretending to be a state agency.
Basically we need to renew our license, and that means that it's a good time to also refresh all of the annoying little business bi…
Basically we need to renew our license, and that means that it's a good time to also refresh all of the annoying little business bi…
May 18, 2006
Shelly's grandmother is dying.
Rick & Terri, plan accordingly.
More later.
Rick & Terri, plan accordingly.
More later.
May 17, 2006
Big thanks to Bryan for the memory benchmark. I had the same experience here. So I put up what I consider to be the unlikliest candidate for memory-leaks. The Voracity button just keeps recycling the same eight or so squares over and over, so there's not any dynamic allocation going on.
Not that it …
Not that it …
May 16, 2006
Okay, just as a quickie test I broke the links for my three animated buttons up on top there. If you guys who saw hideous memory-consumption on my journal will test it again, I'd appreciate. I don't see anything on those buttons that'd cause a problem, but you never know.
On another note, marketing…
On another note, marketing…
May 15, 2006
With all this talk about how the gubment is taping your phone calls, I had a few thoughts.
One is how VOIP is currently screwing things up for 'em. Apparently stuff like Vonage and Skype are pretty good at scrambling up packets before sending 'em along to other servers and/or clients machines --so g…
One is how VOIP is currently screwing things up for 'em. Apparently stuff like Vonage and Skype are pretty good at scrambling up packets before sending 'em along to other servers and/or clients machines --so g…
May 12, 2006
I got a complaint from Rick that pages are running slowly, specifically on this journal page. At first, I suspected that the problem was the recent Flash 8.5 beta which has a documented memory leak, but it turns out he's using Flash 8.0.22 and IE 6, which should be pretty solid leak-wise.
According …
According …
May 11, 2006
Okay, standalone confusebox is basically done. I still need to add a "give up" button, as there's no convenient way to get back to the main menu if you, for example, realize that you're playing a game you don't want to play (wrong game number, size, etc). Your only solution to get back to the main …
May 10, 2006
Once upon a time, there were two crabs:
Belvin was a philosopher and a mensch and was schooled in the ways of Sartre and Rand. Nivleb was an engineer who had graduated from a school in the Southwest Conference and was considered to be both devious and shallow by his peer crab philosophers and fellow…
Belvin was a philosopher and a mensch and was schooled in the ways of Sartre and Rand. Nivleb was an engineer who had graduated from a school in the Southwest Conference and was considered to be both devious and shallow by his peer crab philosophers and fellow…
May 09, 2006
SQLiteZinc has now gone a week without a bug report, and I have it working in four games without any new bugs, so I'm probably gonna declare the thing to be version 1.0 and leave it up there forever. I got two promises from people that they'd toss a few bucks in the "tip jar" but not a dime from it…
May 08, 2006
Didn't do much game-related this weekend. Friday was Shelly's parents 40th anniversary dinner. We took 'em to Buca Di Beppo, which is a good place to take a big crowd of folks on short notice. We didn't have a very big crowd (11 people), but it worked out really well.
Saturday Maggie had yet another…
Saturday Maggie had yet another…
May 05, 2006
My pal Ron from Seattle, one of the finest off-the-wall talents of whom you've never heard, former drummer for the Ottoman Bigwigs (first CD I ever ripped so I could play it on my cheapo MP3 player), and the only subhuman for whom I may someday surrender my title as The Man(tm) now has his own podc…
May 03, 2006
Hey Hey Wow!
HEY HEY HEY WOW!!!
According to my usage log, 88% of this blog's readers have checked the checkbox so that they'll hear the theme every time they load the page. That's a bit lower than what I'd hoped, but it's still good.
Three standalone games are about ready now. I'll probably need to s…
HEY HEY HEY WOW!!!
According to my usage log, 88% of this blog's readers have checked the checkbox so that they'll hear the theme every time they load the page. That's a bit lower than what I'd hoped, but it's still good.
Three standalone games are about ready now. I'll probably need to s…
May 01, 2006
I needed a bit more space for some new games, so I re-did my gamedev header.
I also added a button to play the Official Bargain Basement Blog Theme Song. I decided long ago that I need an official theme song, not so much for the blog but for myself. I needed something that would let people know that…
I also added a button to play the Official Bargain Basement Blog Theme Song. I decided long ago that I need an official theme song, not so much for the blog but for myself. I needed something that would let people know that…
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